


Shaw Alone

by CleverFangirl



Series: Root/Shaw Oneshots [2]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Shaw's POV for her time in the hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3876799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CleverFangirl/pseuds/CleverFangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How exactly did Martine find out about Root's Cochlear implant?<br/>Why did Shaw make that phone call?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shaw Alone

Shaw’s head was pounding.  Her entire body was on fire.  She’s suffered from gunshot wounds before, but never this many, and never at such a close range.  Plus, all of Martine’s tortures were definitely not helping.  Shaw didn’t think she’d ever been in so much pain in her life.  Martine took an almost giddy pleasure in overseeing Shaw’s interrogations.  Shaw had been beaten, electrocuted, stabbed, and even waterboarded.  She’d screamed, shouted, yelled, and blacked out.  But she hadn’t broken.

She never gave them what they wanted.  She answered their questions with demands of her own.  And when the pain became too much, when she couldn’t focus long enough to think of a snappy retort, she withdrew.  She let her mind go blank, distanced herself from the pain, and thought of nothing.  Nothing but Root.  

That’s who they wanted to know about.  Every question Martine asked revolved around the Machine and Root.  She wanted to know where the Machine was, how they communicated it, what made Root so special to the Machine, where she could find Root.  

Shaw never broke, she never told.  She would protect Root and the others with her last breath.  And the longer she held out, the more furious Martine seemed to become.  If anything, her anger only motivated Shaw to resist more.  

One day, a few months after she’d been taken, Martine appeared in Shaw’s room, but this time without her usual escort of guards that normally accompanied them to the different torture rooms.  Martine had never said as much, but Shaw knew she dragged along this extra manpower on the off chance Shaw got loose.  She took it as a complement that, even weak and tortured, Martine still saw her as a credible threat.  

“Where are your boys, Martine?” Shaw asked, ignoring how her voice croaked and scratched due to the large amount of screaming and small amount of talking she’d been doing lately. “Do you think you can take me by yourself now that you’ve beaten me down?”

Martine was smiling as she pulled up a chair beside her bed.  She looked like she’d just come in from the cold.  Her hair was all wrapped up in a black beanie, and there were still a few snowflakes still melting on her coat.  “No, the boys aren’t necessary today,” She said pleasantly.  “You’re not going anywhere.”  She pulled over a wheeled metal table, a few syringes organized on it.  She picked up the first one, flicking it to get rid of any air bubbles.  “I thought we’d try something new today.”

She slid the first needle into Shaw’s vein.  And despite her best efforts to fight it, Shaw felt the sedative take effect, and she slipped into black.  

~

She didn’t know how long she was out, but when she came to, someone was holding her hand.  She opened her eyes, but her vision was blurry.  She blinked several time, but it didn’t clear her sight.  Still, she looked around and saw the person holding her hand.  She couldn’t quite make out the face, but she thought she recognized that messy mane of brown hair.  

She couldn’t believe it.  “Root?” She gasped out weakly.  

“I’m here, Shaw,” Root replied, squeezing her hand.  “I’ve got you.  You’re safe now.”

Shaw blinked again, telling herself it was because she wanted to see Root’s face clearly, and not because of the tears that _were definitely not welling up in her eyes_.  “What?” She asked blearily, “What happened?”

“The Machine found you,” Root explained.  “We led a rescue mission.”

Shaw scoffed, “Wow, I would have thought She had more important things to do than waste time on me.”

“She?” Root asked, curiously.  

“The Machine,” Shaw corrected quickly, annoyed at her adoption of Root’s favor of pronouns for the Machine.  “I thought She- _It_ was more focused on stopping Samaritan than saving me.”

 She wasn’t quite sure, but she thought Root was smiling, “We did.  We stopped Samaritan, and saved you.  All with the help of the Machine.”

Shaw raised her eyebrows.  “Sounds like I missed out on a lot,” She said, trying not to sound too disappointed.  It felt almost anticlimactic, her missing out on that fight.  “How long was I out?”

“Quite a while,” Root said, offhandedly.  “But Shaw, I’ve got a problem.”

Shaw raised her eyebrows and tried to lift up her head, but she was still too weak to move.  “Yeah?  What is it?”

“I can’t contact the Machine,” She said, her voice sounding not scared, but almost... eager.  “Can you think of any way to send a message to it?”

Shaw squinted again, getting frustrated at her still blurry eyesight.  Something was off, something at the back of her mind was trying to get her attention, but she couldn’t place it.  It was like an itch she couldn’t quite scratch.  “Is there something wrong with your implant?”

“My implant?” Root repeated.  “Like a cochlear implant?  That could contact the Machine anywhere?”

“I guess,” Shaw shrugged.  “It’s in your head not mine.”

“Right... It is,” Root said slowly.  She shakes her head, correcting herself, “Or it was.  It malfunctioned.  It’s not working right.”

Shaw’s eyes went wide, “What?  Are you okay?  Did it damage you?  That’s tied to your _brain_ , Root.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Root said, giving her hand another reassuring squeeze.  “We just need to think of some other way to contact the Machine.”  

“Have you talked to Finch?” Shaw asked.  “I mean, he built the thing.  The two of you know how it works way better than I do.”

“Right, Finch,” Root nodded. “He’s, um, he’s in hiding somewhere.  Didn’t tell us where he was going.”

“Finch is hiding?”  Shaw repeated, worried for the first time about the rest of the team.  “What happened?  Was the subway compromised?  Is John with him? _Is Bear okay?_ ”  

“Yes, yes, everyone’s fine,” Root said coolly.  “What was that about the subway?”

But Shaw was blinking hard again, her vision starting to focus.  She was looking at Root hard, and that sense that something was wrong was getting stronger.  “Root,” She said slowly.  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Root checked her watch and sighed.  “Looks like we’re out of time for the moment.  We’ll have to continue this later.”

Shaw was going to ask what she was talking about when something sharp stabbed her arm and she fell unconscious again.  

~

The next time Shaw woke up, she was bleary and confused, and convinced that something was _very wrong_. She looked around.   _No.  No, no, no, please no._ She was still in the hospital.  Still lying on a bed with a screen flashing random words of obedience and loyalty that she scoffed at.  She was still a prisoner.

Shaw’s sluggish mind tried to process her situation.  Had it, had _Root_ , just been a dream?  No, no it couldn’t have been.  It felt too real.  It had happened.  Then how had she returned here?  There was only one logical conclusion, though Shaw hated to consider it.  

She had never left.  She’d been here the whole time.  Root had never been here.

But then, who had?

Something sharp, something almost like fear, shot through Shaw suddenly, and she sat up before she could stop herself.  Then she looked down.  They’d left her unrestrained.  She was free.  In an instant, Shaw made her decision.

She pulled herself shakily to her feet, standing for a moment as the room spun dangerously around her.  Whatever Martine had pumped her full of, she was still feeling the effects of it, hard.  But Shaw wasn’t about to let something like drug-induced weariness to stop her and she slowly made her way to the door.  She tried the handle, surprised to find it open.  Martine must have miscalculated how long her drugs would keep Shaw unconscious.  She opened the door slowly, and peeked out into the hallway.  There was no one there.  Most of the lights were off.  

Carefully, quietly, Shaw ventured into the hallway.  She knew that wherever she was, there was a lot of security.  She knew it was too much to hope that she would be able to make it out of here herself, especially in her drugged and weak state.  But maybe, just maybe, she could undo the damage she’d done.  And she knew she’d done damage.  Whoever she’d been talking to, it hadn’t been Root.  That entire conversation had taken place with one of Samaritan’s agents, and she’d been too drugged up and naive to realize it.  

She grit her teeth and forced herself to continue down the hall.  She had to warn them, she could do that at least.  As she rounded a corner, her heart leapt at the sight of a phone embedded in the wall.  She made her way towards it, chafing at her slow pace.  This place was Samaritan’s base.  She knew there were cameras everywhere.  It was only a matter of time before she was caught.  She had to warn them before that happened.  

Finally, she made it to the phone.  Without thinking, she dialed the one number she knew they would have near them.  Root, Reese, and Finch had probably changed phones since she’d been caught, but she knew they would keep her phone with them.  Just on the off chance...

As she listened to the line ring, Shaw’s heartbeat picked up.  She would never admit it, but she was almost nervous.   _Please_ , she begged silently.   _Please pick up, I have to fix this.  I’m so sorry._

Then the ringing stopped, and a voice whose screams had haunted her dreams for months, answered.  “Hello?”

Shaw’s heart leaped at the sound of Root’s voice.  She wondered then, how she could ever have mistaken the imposter’s words for Root’s.  How could she have forgotten the tilt of Root’s words, that tone that was so light but so deep she only used with Shaw?  How could she have let herself be tricked so easily?

“Root?  Are you there?  It’s me, I need your help.  I-”

But the line went dead before she could finish.  “NO!” She shouted, “Root are you there? I need to warn you!  Root, they tricked me!  They know about the subway!  They’re going to come for you!”

“She can’t hear you,” Martine said, slipping up behind her.  She grabbed Shaw’s hands and cuffed them together behind her back.  “But thanks for sending her a message.”

Shaw tried to wrench herself from Martine’s grip, but it was no use.  She was too weak and unsteady.  Martine easily turned her around and started marching her right back to her room.  As they walked, Shaw got her first good look at Martine and her stomach dropped at the sight.

Martine’s hair was brown.  She was the imposter.  Somehow, Shaw had mistaken Martine for Root.  Part of her was so disgusted she wanted to die right then and there.  

Martine seemed to see the realization in Shaw’s eyes.  She smirked, “I have to say I’d been impressed with how you withstood our tortures.  I thought you were a real tough nut to crack.  I wish I’d known how much of a sap you were.  A mixture of hallucinogens, some sedatives, and a pack of hair dye had you spilling your secrets so fast it was like you had no loyalty at all.”  

Shaw clenched her jaw as fury and guilt threatened to overwhelm her.  She snapped back with the only thing she could think of.  “They got my call,” She snarled. “They can trace it here.  They know where you are now.”

To her surprise, Martine’s smile only grew wider as she ushered Shaw back into her room and cuffed her to her bed.  “Of course they do.  And I have no doubt your girlfriend is already preparing to storm the castle.”  She raised her eyebrow, “How else do you think we were going to get that implant out of her?”

Shaw’s stomach dropped.  “What?”

“Oh yes,” Martine said, lazily leaning back against a rack of medical equipment.  “We’d been wondering how Root stayed in contact with the Machine everywhere.  I didn’t think she’d be crazy enough for a cochlear, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”  She widened her eyes in fake sympathy at the look of pure hatred on Shaw’s face, “Oh don’t worry.  She’ll only suffer minor brain damage when we take it out of her.  She’ll still have basic functions, and she’ll still look good for you.  Though she might be less of a chatterbox...”  She waved her hand.  “Oh well, she’ll probably be here in a few hours.  I recommend you get some rest.  That many drugs in your system can’t be fun, and you have a long ride ahead of you.”

Shaw narrowed her eyes, “A ride?”

Martine nodded, pushing herself from her perch and calmly making her way towards the door.  “Of course.  You don’t think we’d keep you here with an infiltration team on the way, do you?  We’ll make sure you’re long gone before your friends get here.  But don’t worry,” She said, stopping at the door to throw Shaw one last insufferable smirk.  “I’ll be sure to tell Root you say hi.”

 

 


End file.
